Presenters:
Zafar U. Khan, Eastern Michigan University
Gary McCombs, Eastern Michigan University
Susan Kattelus, Eastern Michigan University
Description:
Many business students find the accounting principles course difficult with high drop/retake rates. With about 15% accounting majors, the wisdom of a historical "preparer" approach versus a "user" approach is questioned. This presentation describes proactive efforts of the faculty at a Midwest university to increase the usefulness and relevance of the course—from administrative changes to streamlining the content and pedagogy. The Michigan Accountancy Foundation (MAF) provided a grant that was used to survey the students about specific topics being interesting, understandable, and useful. Other information collected concerned perceptions of accounting, technology, and reasons for choosing or not choosing an accounting major.
The comprehensive presentation will look at the "preparer" versus "user" approach in the principles course and concept of a service course to the college of business; describe the efforts and actions of the faculty to make the course more useful and relevant to business majors; present results of the MAF-supported survey and follow-up survey (after additional changes); conclusions and recommendations.
Interested participants should find useful information on a very important topic and the presentation should stimulate discussion of the challenges among accounting professionals and academics who share the common objective of improving accounting education towards the goal of higher quality business majors.
